Assault on IS-held Manbij in Syria within days: Pentagon

A US-backed Kurdish and Arab alliance is set to attack an Islamic State-held city in northern Syria within days, a military spokesman said Wednesday, helping clear the way for an eventual assault on the jihadists’ stronghold of Raqa. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are on the northern edge of Manbij, a strategically important town held by IS forces that serves as a waypoint between Raqa and the Turkish border. “At the pace they’re moving now and at the speed that they’ve been able to fight the enemy, we think they’re a matter of days before they conduct the attack on (Manbij),” Baghdad-based military spokesman Colonel Chris Garver told Pentagon reporters in a video call.